Busy busy busy

Its been longer than I had thought since I posted here.  I have played a few games since my last post, I have painted more figures and I have watched some rugby.  I have also been feeling pretty sick in between these, so things have fallen a bit behind schedule.

The table we played on

Games played since my last post have been many and varied.  Tuesday last week saw four of us gather at Casa del Stumpy again.  The usual trio of Nathan, Gus and myself were joined by the sizeable addition of Pingu.  ACW Black Powder was the order of the day, but I forgot my camera again.  I guess the only thing that could be worse than forgetting your camera would be to take it and then leave it there when you are going away on holiday on the Thursday, but who would do such a thing?

Rebs smash into the Blue Line

 Luckily Nathan managed to take a few photos, so I have nicked some from his blog.  The game went well, at least it did for Gus and I commanding the gallant defenders of the Union.  Despite being militia, untried and outnumbered, Gus' brigade managed to see of the rebellious Southerners despite their repeated charges and advantage of numbers.

Reb Cavalry vs dismounted Union Cavalry

What really happened was every time Gus fired or fought he managed to roll a 6, disordering the Reb unit.  Every single time.
 This meant that despite their superiority in capability and numbers, the Rebs tended to be fighting at a disadvantage due to the defender holding behind either a wall or fence.

Union reinforcements arrive

In addition to Gus and his jammy dice, Pingu managed to roll very low numbers for the Confederate generals, so they were failing orders and the additional brigades didn't come on it time to help.

So, the battle ended with the Rebs skedaddling back to their Southern homes while the Union boys held the ground and had some sippin' whiskey.

The quiet left flank

The game was enjoyed, but I am still not convinced that Black Powder does it for me.  I prefer Fire and Fury for ACW, Maurice for AWI and They don't like it up 'em for Colonial.  Nothing bad about the rules, they just don't do it for me I'm afraid.

Panjo looks at Gus with disgust after another 6!

 After the quick resolution of the wargame, we adjourned downstairs to play Pandemic.  This co-operative game requires the team to work together to counter the spread of nasty germs and virus type things.  We managed to win both games, the first with 1 card left in the deck, the second with 3 cards left, so we are getting better at it.

 
The next gaming was on Monday night this week, where the next round of the Dux campaign was taking place.  Nathan was still gathering replacements from the defeat he had suffered at my hands and the other Saxon lords decided to leave my lands alone and raid the other British territories.  Colin took on Andy, giving him a sound thrashing and capturing his Lord.  We are not sure what this means in terms of the campaign, but I am thinking either pay a ransom or get a new Lord for Andy.  Zob took on Pingu and, despite failing in the mission, managed to scrape a 1 point win.  This is Zob's first victory and finally gained him some loot.


Next Monday's game is Dux for me, with the most victorious Saxon lord (Colin) taking on the most victorious British lord (me!).  This could be a decider for Colin as he is rapidly gaining more men and has already gathered a large amount of loot.  I can see a Warlord appearing out of the Saxon mists, waging war on one of the British lords in an attempt to set up his own kingdom.  Unfortunately for me Colin has gained extra skirmishers as well as 2 extra warriors.  Things could be bloody on Monday night.

Saturday sees the ACW commanders gather again, but this time to go to Market Larden up in Evesham.  This gathering is being organised by members of the Wyvern Wargamers, with 30+ people getting together to play various Too Fat Lardies games.  I am looking forward to this as a day out with the lads doesn't come around that often anymore, due to work and family commitments from one or more of us each time.  So onwards and upwards, expect to see many photos (if I remember the bloody camera) and random musings next week.

Rugby has had a good few appearances in my schedule too.  No2 son and myself went up watch the Premiership final and a cracking day out it was.  Thoroughly enjoyed it, good entertainment and the boy went to the bar as he is now old enough to get 'em in.  Admittedly I was only on coke, but its still nice for somebody else to get the drinks.  The game was good too and I think the Tigers would have won even if Dylan Hartely wasn't sent off.  Last Saturday we went up and watched the first Lions match in the pub.  Another good game and he went and got the drinks again.  The cost of 2 pints and 2 cokes has prompted the (temporary) arrival of Sky Sports in this house though.  £25 for Sky Sports or £16 at the pub for each of the remaining 9 matches, the maths is easy.  So this morning we watched the Lions playing the Western Force team in Aussieland.  Not as good a showing from the Lions and I can only hope they get better as the week passes by.  Bring back the scrummaging master that is Adam Jones!  Dan Cole is good, but he's not that good.

Well that's it for now, off to paint some more Napoleonics.  I have now done over 1200 15mm figures this year, which is about as many as I did all of last year I think.   Keep rolling those dice folks, and support the British and Irish Lions......unless your an Australian.